Sunday, August 1, 2010

When we lived in Powassan, four hours north of Toronto, we had many friends we still keep in touch with. Two special friends Barry and I love very much are Bonnie and Jim. When we lived down the street from Bonnie and Jim, we had our girls, Kathy and Heather. Bonnie and Jim wanted children too, so they adopted two girls. Barry still in social work back then, was doing placements of babies with Childrens' Aid.... and so he was instrumental in getting children for Bonnie and Jim. Like Kathy and Heather, Bonnie and Jim's daughters are all grown up now and starting lives of their own.

The youngest daughter has been pregnant this summer and Barry and I were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Bonnie and Jim's first grandchild. At the hospital Barry kept asking me if the baby had arrived yet. I kept telling him not yet. Well, the baby did arrive.... finally. Barry passed on at noon on July 20th and the baby arrived at 10 pm. that same day! She is a girl, Ayla. She weighed in at 8lbs. 3oz. I emailed congratulations to Bonnie and Jim on the birth of their first granddaughter! =D

I really feel like baby Ayla's arrival completes our circle of life in a very unique and unexpected way. I am very anxious to meet little Ayla... she is a very special arrival to our world indeed! If you are interested, and Ayla's mommy agrees, I will write a post about her on my blog at a future date. Barry would be very happy that this little baby's arrival was his last post.... if he had to have a last post. Goodbye dear blog friends... of this explorer.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

We held a memorial service for Barry yesterday, Friday and a visitation Thursday night. Over two hundred friends, colleagues and family members came to pay their last respects to Barry. My daughter Kathy, printed a copy of the blog I wrote to tell you about Barry's passing. The reason she did that was for the family. All of us were so touched by your blog comments. Thank you for sharing your heartfelt messages. People who came to the memorial were also touched by your comments to the blog. I cannot read them without crying. We placed the blog in the white binder on the table below.

Another bit of work from Kathy was to visit many of the tribute pages bloggers had posted in remembrance of Barry. Kathy posted those beautiful bits of writing on display boards for all to read. People were not surprised by the words you wrote from blogland but only commented on how accurate your perceptions were for people who had never met Barry in person.

Barry would have wanted your voices to be heard at his memorial. Your writing captured his spirit. Everyone at the funeral loved Barry and all admired his gift for reaching out to people's hearts. Everyone felt he left our world to early and no one was ready to say goodbye to him yet. Neither was I. But I did and we did and you did. Thank you all.

Tomorrow I will post one more blog on this page. After a few days, I will leave the blog up but disable the comments sometime next week. I will still be blogging at Living in the Eastern Woodlands.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I am sorry to share this post tonight with all of you. Barry passed away at noon today. His breathing became very laboured and after they gave him several medications for pain, he stopped breathing.

Sometimes during a war, the General dies on the battlefield. It doesn't mean the battle is lost, it could mean the General won the war but lost his life trying. That is the stuff heroes are made of.

Barry did not loose his battle with cancer today. The cancer is dead and gone forever now. Barry however, will always live on in our hearts. I consider Barry a hero, not a person who has lost anything.

On the Saturday closest to April 3rd every year our family will meet at a local bookstore and celebrate "Buy a book for Grandpa Day" and we will all buy a book in Barry's memory.

Thank you for all of your love and support. Barry really did enjoy blogging and he looked forward to sharing all of your comments.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

About every five minutes as I type this, I'm stopped by a harsh, gasping cough as my lungs rebel against the constraints of the fluid that surrounds them. The same cough that has kept me awake nights for weeks now. The same cough that kept me awake until well after midnight last night until exhaustion finally overcame me and I drifted into a fitful sleep.

At 10:30 this Happy Father's Day, my daughter Kathy will arrive to take me on the long drive down deep into the City where I will be admitted to the Toronto General Hospital for best part of the week to have the fluid finally and completely drained from the pleura surrounding both lungs and to seal the pockets of the pleura to prevent this ever happening again.

I will be taking my laptop with me, but have already decided not to do any posts this week, even if the hospital has internet access. So don't expect any updates on this blog until at least next weekend. If anything really interesting happens, Linda will be sure to let you know.

In the meantime, I have some packing to do and a flood of pills to take.

Let me wish all the father's out there a Happy Father's Day.

As for me, like the President of BP once famously said, I'm looking forward to getting my life back. And hope this week will do the trick.

A Little Background

Welcome to this highly eclectic blog. It began its little life as a lighthearted look at the events of the world around me, especially the adventures of my dog Lindsay. However in March of 2009 I was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer which, as you might suspect, changed the nature and tone of this blog considerably, especially now that the cancer has metastasized to the bones of my hip, ribs, spine and possibly lungs. So now, for the most part, this blog chronicles my search for a healthy life both within and without conventional medicine. However, I continue to post about my dog Lindsay episodically, participate in "Our Town Shootouts" on Fridays, and Sepia Saturdays.
And every now and then, I just post what I want.